“I’m going to jettison the fusion generator at full power and blow these suckers to dust! Strength to your skill, Mic,” Chance said, and turned off the intercom. He didn’t want any opposition, but hoped he’d be trusted. He also didn’t want to hear Corrin’s objections.
The woman wants us not to run eh, Chance thought. Well we’re done running.
Bound turned around and Chance could feel the maneuvers get more complicated. Strength to your skill, Chance said again in his head. He barely caught a glance at the wide-eyed mechanics now coming over to help him with the backup fusion generator. They had to climb a ladder to reach it. They all nearly fell with a quick turn and Chance hoped he’d get the generator ready before Mic got too close.
He remembered how to code the entry. He had to do it manually through the generator itself. The mechanics opened it and he climbed up to reach it. It was on a sort of pedestal that could be pushed out and lowered where the primary generator was. There was also a tube right below it where it could be jettisoned in case it was damaged.
Chance reached inside and pulled out the safety restrictor that prevented the generator from overpowering, tossing the plastic pin clattering across the room. Then he manipulated the panel controls, turning up the settings higher than they’d ever be put and deactivating all the safety devices. He primed the generator and, with a quick coding, made it think they were using every single device on the ship with ten times their normal output. With the restrictor gone the generator wouldn’t shut down even though it thought they were using drive and atmosphere engines at the same time, along with every other device that could be turned on.
Chance jumped down and raced back to the Control Room. “Finish the rest!” he shouted, and handed his multi-tool the nearby mechanic. “I need to time the drop from the Control Room!”
Chance tumbled from a quick dodge Mic piloted. He ran out of Mechanics and down the corridor. He got to the room with the pole and used it to support himself as he flew up the steep rungs in the wall. Chance quickly reached the fourth level.
He fell against the wall, hurting his head when the ship registered a hit. The lights flickered but he struggled to keep going. When he reached the Control Room, Chance saw the massive, squared ship ten times as big as Bound and growing bigger and bigger as they approached it. Beams of light flashed all over the bulky craft. Corrin looked like she’d been shouting forever but stood with her arms crossed next to Jacobson.
She said to Chance, “Captain, you cannot attack them. It would—”
“They made that decision by attacking first, Corrin,” Chance said as he relieved Jacobson of her position.
She buckled herself in to her own station. Corrin and Chance were the only ones who weren’t strapped in, stumbling almost in defiance of the pounding the ship gave Bound.
Chance’s monitors flashed that the backup generator was approaching critical power and about to explode. “Perfect,” he said.
“Approachin’, Captain.” Mic said, sweat pouring.
“Barriers nearly gone,” Jacobson said with no tone of fear.
Chance quickly coded into his panel to prepare to drop the generator. He had to do it properly, and only he knew how.
“Captain, you must—” Corrin tried.
“Cut off, Corrin, or I’ll cut it off!” Chance shouted as he finished his coding.
The gravity drive was working extra hard and doing a good job of dealing with Mic dodging the hundreds of shots. This was why Chance and Corrin were able to stand and why Chance was able to see the Prophet step back and adjust her white crown, closing her eyes slightly and concentrating on something. The woman seemed to have reached a decision as her face and eyes became rock hard.
Bound flew fast and Mic dodged well. A few shots still hit as the ship approached the right distance. The power barriers were dangerously low and Chance’s grip on his monitors nearly broke through the glass.
“Prepare for drop!” Chance said right before a hit made his monitors go crazy. They all flashed at once Barriers Dead.
It was do or die. But they were there. And Corrin was concentrating as hard as she could.
“Brace yourselves!” Chance shouted, and hit the coding for the generator to jettison. A jolt told him it was out.
Lights illuminated the Control Room like flashworks. Explosions of all colors that rivaled the look of a drive engulfed everything Chance could see as he flew to the floor. He could feel Bound rocking and being tossed about like a kid throwing around a toy airplane. More flashes and pushes, and Bound twirled about in space.
Going right over the alien ship had made them an easy target. Chance thought those last hits should have killed them immediately. Bound had no power barriers left, so he knew they’d be dead soon.
He was barely able to see his panels register that the fusion generator had gone off. They had gotten far enough away for it to not hit them, but got too close to avoid the other ship’s blasts. The image of the other ship disappeared from his monitors, and Chance would have felt relief but the still spinning Bound made him only wait for the inevitable explosion and their death. He waited, spinning and desperately hanging on to the monitors.
The explosion never came.
Without warning, Bound came to a stop. Through clenched teeth and long breaths, Chance realized he was still alive. He cautiously eased himself off the floor and looked around. The crew was just now getting up as well. Standing before him, at his control panel, was Corrin. She had a weary look to her as she coded into his panel.
A slight smile worked its way across her face as Chance got to his feet. He was about to say something about her touching his controls when Bound turned around. He saw the alien ship, still there, without a sign of damage.
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Chance didn’t want to give them a chance to open fire. “Prepare the other generator!” Chance said as he pushed Corrin out of the way and readied the coding. He got no more than two entries in, which did nothing, before his hands froze.
“That’s quite enough, Captain Miles,” Corrin said as she adjusted her crown. The Prophet had frozen him with her power. If Chance had the ability to snarl right then, he would have, but he couldn’t move an eyelid. “From all of you.” Corrin looked like she was concentrating a little more, and everyone in the Control Room stood still, locked in her power. “I don’t want to risk you ruining things like you already nearly have.”
Corrin entered some strange coding into Chance’s monitors. Then she pulled a small device from a waist pocket and connected it to his panel. She pointed it at herself and turned it on.
A fuzzy image appeared on Chance’s monitors. He was able to see it through his unmoving gaze. The image sharpened and there stood a beautiful woman with flowing gold hair and gray eyes. Her pinkish skin shone and her bright white dress made her a wonderful, flower-like beauty. She smiled in the monitors and laughed. Corrin laughed as well. It was the sweet laughter of joy.
Now Chance understood what they were laughing at. Behind the laughing flower were several men and women, all frozen and arranged in a crew-like fashion in a massive, square room that looked like the other ship’s Control Room. They had green uniforms. The flowery woman was also wearing a bright, white crown. Chance wanted to scream as he realized she was a Sevens Prophet. She looked nothing like the other members of green-clad crew, but seemed from another world herself, the way Corrin was with Chance and his crew.
“Corrin,” the Prophet on the screen said. “So good to see you. Shall we meet on the planet?”
“Yes, Matriana,” Corrin replied. “I hope they weren’t too much trouble.”
Bound began to move back toward Alturin.
“That blast was powerful. If you hadn’t warned me my shield might not have stopped it,” the other Prophet, Matriana, said.
“The same goes for those weapons. I’ve never created a shield that strong before. Bound was jostled a bit but we should be fine. Our power barriers are coming back up,” Corrin said.
“Good. We shall meet soon, Corrin.” Matriana winked at Chance and the image went away.
Corrin picked up her device and put it back in her small pocket. “Now do you understand, Chance?” she asked with a motherly tone. Chance’s eyes were full of rage and Corrin sighed. “You’ll have to trust me, Chance. I don’t want to have to do that again.” As if the air suddenly melted, Corrin freed the crew.
Chance stopped his fall on the monitors and held himself up, hearing several thumps as crewmembers collapsed on control monitors or fell out of seats. He made a fist to show that he could move again, and quickly straightened. The others were still recuperating. Ashley moved her jaw around to be sure it still worked.
“What is going on here, Corrin? Who were those people?” Chance asked. He moved toward the controls but Corrin grabbed his arm, stopping him with a firm grip.
“You will soon find out,” Corrin said with a smile.
Chance struggled slightly before he saw Corrin’s steady gaze. Her composure was gone and Chance now saw wide eyes full of determination.
“Let go, Corrin,” Chance said.
“You’re already on a path that’s been set down long ago, Captain Mills. And I won’t have you or anyone else pull you off it and back into the pointless cycle of war,” Corrin said, her eyes darting around the room as if in a challenge.
Chance saw the crew. They weren’t even paying attention to him. They were eagerly watching Alturin speed below them as they skimmed the surface.
For once in his life, Chance swallowed his pride and pulled his hand slowly away.
Chance turned and faced the window as green Alturin sped by below him. “So you shielded us?” he asked after a few moments of awkward silence. He and many of the others were still getting over what had happened.
“Yes. I didn’t want to do it, Captain. Bound would have been destroyed if I hadn’t. And had Matriana not shielded the ship she was on from the fusion blast you created, they would be dead as well,” Corrin explained.
The crew turned, hearing the reasons behind their great battle. Meyers panted, putting a hand to his chest as the shock of the experience came full circle.
“So, so there was never any danger?” Jacobson asked.
“No,” Corrin replied, her eyes still on the planet’s surface.
“Why…” Chance began in a thunderous roar. He held his anger back, though, not wanting Corrin to use her power again. Chance hated having to submit to a woman who had a power she, in his mind, didn’t deserve. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Chance asked through clenched teeth.
“I’m not a meddler, Captain. I’m here to stop a war. And you nearly caused one,” Corrin said. “It’s the Prophets’ job to help you succeed on your own, not guide you. But when you nearly caused death, I had no choice but to intervene.”
The realization hit the crew and Jacobson sat down hard. Meyers swayed and nearly fainted.
“Da’ang,” Mic said, shaking his head. “A war.” The great pilot stood up and, teary-eyed, looked to Corrin. “Thank ya, Corrin. Ya saved us from a terrible thing.”
“Thank you,” Jacobson echoed.
Within seconds, all the crewmembers in the Control Room were thanking the Prophet as Bound slowed, nearing a wide field.
“It’s what the Prophets are here for,” Corrin replied, and looked down at Chance, waiting.
“I… thank you,” Chance said.
Jacobson gave him an annoyed glare, like a mother scolding an uncaring son, and Chance did the only thing he could think of. He took control and said, “Jacobson, I want a damage analysis right now. The drive system is fried, I know that for sure. Get the mechanics to tell me how long before Bound can be fixed. I want to be ready in case we have any more surprises.” He knew Corrin controlled the ship. He also knew it would be his job to repair it.
Hearing orders again broke the crew out of their stunned and obedient stares, and they quickly went back to work. As the crew began to see what all could be fixed on their ship, eyes couldn’t help drifting to the windows. A lush, green landscape went past them. The whole planet lacked a single mountain, but it was covered in vast plains, continent-sized forests of varying thickness, and scattered oceans and lakes glittering in the sun. It was beautiful.
In the middle of the biggest plains on the planet, Bound put out its legs to land. Chance had gotten the damage assessment, and Bound would be okay with a day or so to fix things and install replacement parts. Chance could keep his excitement under control if he wanted, but he couldn’t stop his heart from beating out of his chest as Bound hit Alturin soil.
“The land seems pretty good. How’s the atmosphere, Jacobson?” Chance asked, trying to absorb himself in the work to be done.
The other ship had landed a little bit away, at the exact moment Bound did. It looked strangely smaller outside the blackness of space, but still dwarfed Bound.
“Showing high levels of oxygen and nitrogen. It’s more breathable than Home, Captain,” Ashley said with a big smile.
“Good,” Chance said, and turned to the Prophet. He took a glance at his crew, who watched to see what he’d do now that the Prophet had no more control over where they went. He could see from their eager expressions that they didn’t want any more conflict. “So, Corrin, what do we do now?”
The other ship still sat there as if waiting for something as Bound’s crew sighed with relief that their captain was finally acting sensible.
“Captain, you will remember this day for the rest of your life. Prepare yourself and come with me,” Corrin said, and turned toward the door. “The rest of the crew may come if they wish.”
All eyes but Chance’s went wide with eagerness.
Mic scratched his head fiercely as Chance took one last look at the ship out the window. They can’t still be hostile. Not after what happened, he thought. Chance walked toward the door and held it open. He gave a slight nod to his crew, and walked out the door.